I was speaking to a client about putting her work out there. It’s a common sound as the fear kicks in. A million thoughts along the lines of “Am I good enough?”, “What if people don’t like my work?”, “What are people going to think?” etc run through the mind.
It’s very common to have visibility challenges. When people work for a large company, they can easily hide behind the brand. The business card opens doors as a representative of the company. When you are working for yourself, it’s your name and brand on the door and the website and it can feel very different.
There’s nothing to hide behind anymore. If they don’t like what they see, essentially they don’t like you. And that’s ok. Because not everyone will like you. It’s hard to hear that, I get it but it’s true. We don’t like everyone so why would we expect everyone to like us. Because it’s us right? What’s not to like? Hahaha.
In this case, I suggested imagining that her daughter was coming to her for advice in putting her work out there. What would she suggest to her daughter? Suddenly the advice came openly and freely. It felt much easier to suggest solutions for others.
So if you are finding it hard to put yourself or your work out there, try doing it for someone else.
Abstract yourself.